Bachmann’s anti-Muslim ‘brain’ draws laughs at Values Voter Summit

Frank Gaffney, president of the right-wing Center for Security Policy think tank, said at the Family Research Council Action Fund’s Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C. on Saturday that Islam is a “brutally repressive doctrine” that is “bad for just about all human beings.”

Gaffney, the man largely credited with inspiring Republican Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann’s “witch hunt” against Muslims in government, said Islam is “brutally repressive. It’s comprehensive, totalitarian, supremacist doctrine, especially bad for women, for homosexuals, for Jews, other minority, religious faiths, well, pretty much just about for all human beings, actually.” The remark prompted laughter from a packed room.

“Not to say that all Muslims subscribe to this, but everyone of them that does is a problem, make no mistake about it,” Gaffney continued. He said that we know from looking at groups like Hamas that some Muslims are “perfectly capable of being violent,” “but for the moment, here in the United States, they’re involved in what I would call, what we describe in the book, a pre-violence state of jihad.”

Gaffney’s talk also included a projected presentation that outlined Muslims that had reached the high levels of American government that he felt were dangerous, including Huma Abedin, a senior aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and wife of former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner (D). He noted that Bachmann was “vilified” and “attacked” for questioning Abedin’s alleged affiliations Muslim Brotherhood, particularly that she was deeply tied to Abdullah Omar Naseef, a man he said is a “terrorist financier.” (Image from the presentation below.)

Gaffney’s allegations, as posed in a letter Bachmann sent earlier this year to inspectors general in State, Homeland Security, Defense and Justice departments calling for an investigation of Abedin, were met with critism even among Republicans. Former Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain condemned Bachmann’s investigation into Abedin’s ties on the Senate floor in July. “These attacks on Huma have no logic, no basis and no merit. And they need to stop now,” he said.

“Don’t worry, it’s all because of a 10-minute YouTube film. It’s our fault, we’re sorry. We won’t do it again,” Stakelbeck said. He also warned against new Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. “The Muslim Brotherhood is much more dangerous than Al Qaeda,” he said, in part because they wear Western-style suits and “they’re much more stealthy about” their desire to implement Sharia law.

The audience also gave a standing ovation to Nonie Darwish, who spoke first on the panel about her process of converting from Islam to Christianity and claims Islam is a “dangerous ideology.” She said, “When it comes to Islam, Americans are confused. The whole world is confused, even Muslims are confused about their own religion.”

She alleged that Islam “obliged” lying while in pursuit of jihad. “Is there any religion on earth other than Islam that permits slander?” she asked.

“As long as the Arab world and the Muslim world hold on to Sharia, we will never have freedom and democracy. And it is very important that we understand that wherever Islam goes, they will want Sharia, and if we don’t give it to them, they will rise up on the streets of America and the streets of Europe will be like the streets of the Middle East,” she said.

Listen to the audio, recorded on Sept. 15. Gaffney’s remarks start at 32:30.

About the Author

Kay Steiger is the managing editor of Raw Story. Her contributions have appeared in The American Prospect, The Atlantic, Campus Progress, The Guardian, In These Times, Jezebel, Religion Dispatches, RH Reality Check, and others. You can follow her on Twitter @kaysteiger.